The best cancer reearch happens in partnership with those impacted by cancer.
The Sussex Cancer Research Centre is committed to authentic and inclusive engagement with our local community.
Designing a community engagement strategy.
From day one we knew that our community would be our strength.
The Health and Care Research Partnership established the Research Engagement Network (REN) in 2022, to grow local research engagement networks by working with local voluntary, community and social enterprise sector organisations to engage “underserved” communities. The communities recommended that to seriously tackle health inequalities, community research should be embedded within the health and care research life-cycle. The REN is pioneering the training and support of community researchers, embedded in diverse communities across Sussex.
We are proud to work with the Sussex-based non-profit Diversity Resource International, to ensure everyone in our community benefits from the leading research happening here.
Diversity Resource International’s mission is to listen to, and then address, the community’s changing needs, and work with others to remove barriers to allow equitable engagement and benefit.
Diversity Resource International are recipient of NHS England funded awarded through the Heatlth and Care Research Partnership and Research Engagement Network, to co-design a community engagement strategy for the Sussex Cancer Research Centre. This project will include supporting and training community researchers embedded in diverse communities across Sussex, with a particular focused on those with lived experience of cancer screening, treatment, and care.
The Research Engagement Network, Diversity Resource International, and the Sussex Cancer Research Centre working together with other VCSEs, stakeholders and community researchers, are designign a community engagement plan. This partnership enables genuine co-design of a research engagement strategy that serves people impacted by cancer.
Read the report, and how we’re implementing its findings.
The REN Cancer Project collaborated with underserved communities to co-produce a Public and Community Involvement and Engagement (PCIE) plan for the Sussex Cancer Research Centre, utilising community researchers to bridge cultural and language gaps. Based on insights from 47 participants with lived cancer experience, the project has already led to the creation of a lived-experience advisory group and a community-led pilot project for breast and prostate cancer. Read more below.
If you want to know more, or how you can get involved in shaping cancer research across Sussex, get in touch.